This historical theme park celebrates all things noodle.

The former home of queer novelist Yoshiya Nobuko memorializes her contributions to modern-day manga.

It is said that coins washed in the waters here will miraculously multiply.

This mysterious medieval grotto holds a grid of sacred wells of unknown purpose.

Access to this hidden site of a 14th-century mass suicide is prohibited, unless it is to pray for the dead.

Narrow passes cut out of mountains surround the medieval capital of Japan.

Designed by a computer, this intricate network of fluorescent green pipes has taken over a subway station.

The buildings are among the few Frank Lloyd Wright structures still standing in Japan.

The train engine is tucked under an apartment building on a quiet Tokyo street.

A railway station takeout shop sells boxed meals in containers shaped like trains and snowmen that hold the country’s abundant regional delicacies.

Every color in the rainbow awaits.

Inside the columbarium, thousands of colorful, high-tech Buddhas guard the ashes of the dead.

The legendary birthplace of the Japanese maneki-neko is dotted with hundreds of lucky beckoning cats.

Starship-temple contains 400 tons of drinking water and offers free Japanese lessons.

A King Kong-like gorilla hangs from the top of this commercial building in Tokyo.

This quirky little private museum is home to more than a thousand stones, carved by nature, that resemble human faces.

The birthplace of Japanese coinage.

This ancient burial site was once thought to be the home of a race distinctive to Ainu folklore.

Chiseled out of a sandstone cliff, one farmer's unfinished art project lies in ruins.

An eerie maze of industrial factories looks like something out of a dystopian sci-fi.

The world's shortest escalator doesn't seem to have any reason to exist other than to hold a world record.

This gnome sculpture and his wonderous hat forces train passengers to do a double-take.

The small candy-colored ride is the last rooftop Ferris wheel in Tokyo.

Watch out for the two-story Godzilla made out of tires.